1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for searching a remote database, and more particularly to a system which indexes documents in the database, which identifies documents in the index that include user-specified data, and which outputs a list of documents that contain such data and, optionally, excerpts from those documents. The invention has particular utility in connection with text indexing and retrieval systems, such as World Wide Web search engines.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, search engines search through a database for specific data and retrieve titles of documents in the database which contain that data. For example, World Wide Web search engines, such as Altavista™ and Yahoo!®, provide users with the ability to search the Web for documents containing user-specified words, phrases, or the like. However, conventional search engines, and Web search engines in particular, suffer from a drawback in that they do not allow a user to direct a search to a single database.
More specifically, conventional Web search engines, such as those noted above, operate by generating an index for all sites on the Web, and then retrieving data from that index in response to user queries. Since these search engines generate an index for all sites on the Web, however, they are limited to searching the entire Web. This is disadvantageous, particularly for those users who only want to search specific sites.
In response to the foregoing drawbacks in the art, software manufacturers have developed site-specific searching systems, such as Ultraseek™, which ostensibly allow users to limit their searches to specific Web sites. To use these systems, however, they must be installed at each Web site, e.g., by the Web site's provider. Once installed, the systems create an index of the Web site at the provider's location. Thereafter, when a user accesses the Web site and inputs a search query, code at the site searches that index for the query, and relays the results of the search back to the user.
While the foregoing types of site-specific searching systems address some of the problems associated with conventional Web search engines, such as Yahoo!® and the like, they have several drawbacks. For example, their installation and subsequent maintenance can be costly and time consuming. As a result, Web site providers often choose not to install such systems at their sites. Additional problems arise with these systems in cases where a Web site is maintained by a Web site hosting company, as opposed to by the provider itself. That is, in these cases, in addition to the above problems, problems relating to licensing and the like arise, which make it difficult to implement conventional site-specific searching systems in a cost-effective manner.
In addition to the foregoing drawbacks, conventional database searching systems provide the user with only names/titles of documents in response to a query. For example, conventional Web search engines provide only the name of a document containing a search term, together with a uniform resource locator (“URL”) for that document. As a result, it is not always possible for the user to determine which of the retrieved documents is relevant without actually linking to, and opening, the document. This can slow down searching significantly.
Thus, there exists a need for a searching system which provides the user with the ability to search a portion of a database, such as one or more sites on the World Wide Web, and which is more cost effective, efficient, and easy to use than the conventional systems described above. In addition, there exists a need for a database searching system which is able to provide a user with the context of each search term in documents retrieved as a result of the search.